Lunchtime
by Butterflywing
Summary: Drabble written during my lunch period. I'll try to keep them rated K plus but may change later. Assorted Genres and pairings. No slash. Drabble 6. Magic :.K plus.:
1. Nothing

When two substances combine in a way that changes their very identity, it's called a chemical change.

My life is a chemical change. I'm a human, I'm a ghost. I'm both. I'm neither.

I've tried to figure out what I am. Dead, living, of something in between?

I'm neither. I'm a freak, whose life revolves completely around vengeance.

I envy Daniel. I know exactly what he is.

Human. He has family and friends that care about him. He has school, teachers, all those things that have been torn from me.

So without all that, what am I?

I'm a human.

No, I'm a ghost.

I'm alive.

Or am I dead?

I'm none of those.

I'm all of them.

So once again I'm left with the conclusion that leaves me awake late into the night.

I'm nothing.


	2. Monday Morning

Friday afternoon.

For students, parents, even teachers, it's the best day of the week.

And Monday…

Well, on Monday, all bets are off.

But he loved them. They gave him a sense of balance in his otherwise unstructured and chaotic life.

True, he never had his homework to turn in.

True, Lancer was boring, and his tendency to shout out swear words was slightly disturbing.

And, true, he was always running out of class to 'use the bathroom' or 'see the nurse.'

But he loved Mondays.


	3. Listen

"Mom, there's something I want to tell you," Danny said. He didn't care that she wasn't listening- after all, she _never_ listened to him anymore.

She didn't move, she didn't speak, just as he had expected. He sat down on a near by bench.

The wind whistled through the trees. From over the hills, someone sobbed, a heart wrenching sound.

Danny turned to his mother's grave.

"It was my fault you died," he whispered.

And then he turned and left the graveyard.


	4. No Mother should have to

It wasn't right; she thought in annoyance as the cool female voice in her ear announced that the number she was trying to call was currently unavailable.

Danny hadn't been at school at all that day- Sam was worried. Tucker didn't know where he was, and when questioned during lunch, all Jazz could say was that he had definitely left the house that morning.

There was only one option left. Sam picked up her cell and called Danny's home number, hoping someone there would know what had happened.

"Hello?" Maddie's voice came through, crackly through the cheap speaker's of Sam's phone.

"Mrs. Fenton, can I talk to Danny please?" Sam said, her nervousness well hidden in her voice.

"I'm sorry Sam; he can't come to the phone right now."

Sam's heart beat loudly in her chest, "Why not?" she asked, forcing herself to stay calm. Maybe he wasn't hurt; maybe he was just grounded for missing his curfew again.

Maybe…

-+-+-+-+-+-+

On the other end of the phone, Maddie Fenton considered bitterly how she could best tell her son's best freind that Danny had just been found dead in the park, that his body was waiting to be buried, that he waws gone.

She had to do what no parent should ever have to do...

"He can't come to the phone because...

-+-+-+-+-+-+

"He's dead."

Sam didn't notice her phone slip from limp fingers onto the floor.


	5. Hill

It had happened before- many, many times before. Anyone else would have given up long ago, sunk into despair, or insanity.

But Dan Phantom was now anyone else- he was a creature all unto himself. Two half's of two half ghosts. What did that make him, technically? Half of a half plus half of a half? Mathematically, that's still a half, Dan thought, grinning manically.

But he was getting off topic. Breaking out of this stupid thermos was his main concern now. He'd been so close, so many times… but every time his eyes found the faintest crack or dent in his metal prison, the time ghost, that meddling fool Clockwork, would seal it up again- and Dan would start over.

Back before he had existed, back when he was Danny Phantom, Lancer had insisted that the class study Greek myths for an entire quarter, and although most of the stories had long since faded from Dan's memory, one shone clear.

The names themselves had faded, but he was sure the story had gone like this-

Once there was a man who didn't want to face death.

But like all men, the day came when he was too old and weak to keep his heart beating. Just before he died he and his wife… Merope, was her name? Formed a plan, to keep him out of the underworld forever.

After the old man died, his wife dumped his body in a ditch and went off to party with her friends, much to their confusion.

'Merope,' they'd say, 'how is it that you came to forget your husband so quickly? You loved him so much when he was alive.'

But Merope simply shook her head.

Meanwhile in the Underworld, the man was ranting to the god of the dead, saying 'Look at what my wife has done to me! Dead less than a week, and already forgotten. If I could just walk among the living for a single day, and see her, and speak to her again, I could easily set her straight.'

The god of the dead, angry at Merope, agreed.

That night, Merope lay alone in her room, when she heard a knocking at her door. Her husband walked in, alive and whole.

'It has worked, my love,' he said, 'We have fooled the gods!'

But of course, when the god discovered the man's treachery, he was very angry. But instead of striking the man down, and leaving his spirit to wander the Earth for eternity, he waited.

So the man lived for many more years, but at last the time again came when his heart couldn't beat, and he breathed his last, and he nervously approached the gods for his judgment.

To his surprise, the gods decreed that he would be charged with the task of rolling a heavy rock up a hill. Once the boulder reached the top, he would escape death forever.

Eagerly, the man began the task, sweating and panting as he pushed the boulder. Then, as he was almost there…

He lost his grip on the boulder, and it rolled back to the bottom of the hill. But the man simply ran after it, ready to try again. He may still be there, for all anyone knows.

And to Dan, the thermos was his boulder.

But he still hoped- after all, even the gods had to fall eventually.

And when they did, he would be there to pick up the pieces.

**Yea, strange. This was bugging me. So here it is.**


	6. Magic

Clueless.

They called him clueless.

He wasn't clueless.

He just didn't want the magic to die.

The fake out make outs he shared with Sam were…

Awesome.

If he told her the truth…

That he liked her…

The magic would die…

Better to stay clueless…

For now, at least.


End file.
